"Here's our chance, Annie, for fair! Come along!" This family is thought to be too rough and unsympathetic to raise such a sensitive child, but that's the way it has to beThe little thing nestled down in the warm hollow of her handShe stared and stared"Well," said Cousin Ann, "what has that got to do with 'Lias knowing who did it?" Her head whirledand they're right! And exceptionally relevant and up-to-date feels this tale of a young girl who at the start of the story is deficient in life skills and pushed towards anxiety by helicoptering oversharing aunts.Some great asides:"[Betsy] weighed out the salt needed on the scales, and was very much surprised to find that there really is such a thing as an ounce

"Ow! Ow, it'll hit me!" cried poor little Molly, more and more frightened"Why, to tell the time by, when" [Page 179] Steering the fearful horses is just the beginning of her adventures in New England -- and independence 1 1 >> Then you'd blow with the bellows and drop in pieces of dry pinedon't forget the water glassesand you'd blow gently till they flared up and the shavings caught, and there your fire would be kindled againNow she knew that Cousin Ann realizedElizabeth Ann did not of course for a moment dream that Cousin Molly was thinking any such things about her, but she could not help seeing that Cousin Molly was not any too en- [Page 22] thusiastic about taking her in; and she was already feeling terribly forlorn about the sudden, unexpected change in Aunt Frances, who had been so wrapped up in her and now was just as much wrapped up in Aunt HarrietWhen we meet Betsy (Elizabeth Ann), she is a nine year old who is bright, but timid

Now, now was the moment to remember what Cousin Ann would have doneIn fact she had felt the school was in another worldBut we have taken all the walks around here so often that we're rather tired of themBetsy was screaming too, and when a wagon passing by stopped and a big, broad-shouldered farmer jumped down laughing, put the end of the rope over his shoulder, and just walked off with the whole lot of them till he had pulled them clear off their feet, Elizabeth Ann found herself rolling over and over with a breathless, squirming mass of children, her laughter rising even above the shouts of merriment of the othersWhen her parents died, they rushed to take care of herHe's so big and strong, and he just loves to take care of peopleFor a moment, she couldn't think what made him look so differentBetsy went out of the dusky barn into the rich, October splendor and saw none of itThen she said, "Why, yes, we'd kind of like to keep herAnd yet we know only one or two things about it 5d8a9798ff